In a centrally managed computer system, different managed systems can have different management capabilities. For example, one managed system may have provisions for different power-vs.-performance settings, while another may not. For another example, one hardware system may host virtual machines, which may also be centrally managed, while another managed hardware system may not. As a result, some management products, e.g., management products specifically devoted to power management or virtual machine hosts, may be applicable to some managed systems and not to others in the same centrally managed system. In recognition of this reality, some management software vendors allow their products to be licensed for some managed systems but not on others.
For managed systems for which licenses are desired, the licensing scheme can vary among products and hardware platforms. Software products can be licensed on a per-server basis, on a per-socket (processor) basis, or on a per-core basis. In some cases, both individual product licenses and multi-product licenses may be available that apply to the same managed system.